"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."
JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
My story
"You will never reach your goals if you dwell on every dog that barks" (Winston Churchill).
This was one of the trips to Jerusalem, somewhere in the early 2000s. I worked as a department manager in the Ministry of Finance, influencing macro-economic decisions in the insurance and pension market, engaged in the dream job. Something elusive then began to gain momentum, as the road continued to the Ascensions to Jerusalem, and it was the feeling that I might not be in the right place. who live once, and I have the opportunity, which is not too late, to do something with immense satisfaction. save a life.
The thought of studying medicine and becoming a doctor then germinated on that trip, and began to take on a reality of its own as the days and months progressed. Within two years and after a psychometric journey and arduous matriculation, I became, at the age of 28, a full-fledged student at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.
I loved the world of surgery from the first second, and I knew that's where I would go when my studies and internship were over. The love for children and their care caused me to eventually specialize in pediatric surgery.
Even before that, during the grueling internship in general surgery at Sheba Hospital, I wrote about my experiences and the events that accompany me in my shifts as a doctor - events of life and death, heroic surgeries, moments of happiness, terror, fear and sadness, dealing with serious illnesses and loss. The collection of these stories became the book "Twenty Six" published by Yediot Books in March 2022 and became a bestseller.
I completed my residency in pediatric surgery at the "Schneider" hospital in Petah Tikva, the best place to receive training as a specialist pediatric surgeon. Throughout this long road, and more than once during it, I believed that dreams come true if you believe in them with all your heart. Whether it is in promotion at work, in the medical admissions process, in a demanding specialty in surgery or in publishing a book. Moreover - you must not stop dreaming - because there are no dreams too big.
